Upper East Side landlord sues rapist living in box in halls of mom’s apartment building: 'They live in constant fear'

A convicted rapist, after getting tossed out of his mother's Upper East Side apartment, has been living in a box in the hallway, a new lawsuit says.

Steven McPhail turned the fourth floor of the building at 1374 York Ave. into his own personal lair — urinating in the hallways and leaving his garbage, filthy clothes and leftover food in his cardboard home, the suit says.

Advertisement

The residents, disgusted by the foul smell and afraid of the felon in their midst, are threatening to withhold rent because "they live in constant fear," says the suit filed by landlord Robert Galpern.

"I went and got pepper spray because I'm scared of this guy," said a 35-year-old woman who lives on the fifth floor. "He's unpredictable. He drinks."

But McPhail, 51, told a different story, insisting he never urinated in the hallway or left his clothes on the floor.

McPhail claimed he only spent a brief time living in a box after his "crazy" mother Nancy kicked him out for no reason.

"(The box) was only for like a month," said McPhail, who noted he suffers from nerve damage that has ruined his eyesight and rendered his right hand largely unusable.

"Because I have nowhere. Because I'm disabled."

McPhail had been living with his mom until the last few years when she started repeatedly kicking him out of the apartment, the suit says.

The man, who was convicted of rape and assault in the early 1990s, wandered the halls and stairwells day and night.

The apartment building (l.) and hallway (r.) where McPhail allegedly slept in his box on York Ave. in Manhattan. (Howard Simmons/New York Daily News)

McPhail eventually began collecting boxes in the building's garbage area and setting them up in the hallway to create a makeshift shelter, court papers say.

"He's being a nuisance to the other tenants and he's causing a lot of trouble," said Migir Ilganayev, the landlord's lawyer.

The fifth-floor resident said McPhail regularly drank beers on the stairs and creepily dropped off women's packages at their doors.

She said even the cops were shocked to see how he turned the building's narrow hallways into his personal bedroom.

"He didn't give a damn," said the resident. "Even police said we'd never seen this."

Galpern's company served McPhail with a city notice demanding a stop to his hallway squatting by Feb. 8.

Advertisement

McPhail's terrorized mother also took out an order of protection against her son "because she is scared of him just like the rest of the tenants," the suit says.

But the roving rapist refuses to leave the building. He's been spotted sleeping in the basement and the roof — and roaming around two nearby buildings owned by the same management company, the suit says.

When ordered to leave, McPhail has argued that he has nowhere to go because the order of protection bars him from his mother's apartment, the suit says.

Steven McPhail, 51, was convicted of rape and assault in the early 1990s and now wanders the halls and stairwells day and night.

Galpern has personally pleaded with McPhail to get lost, resulting in confrontations that left the landlord quaking in his shoes.

"Every time plaintiff would go to talk to the defendant, plaintiff was in tremendous fear of imminent bodily harm and death because of defendant's past criminal history," the suit says.

McPhail was convicted of slashing a victim with a box cutter, officials said.

The full details of McPhail's crimes weren't immediately available. But state records show that he was locked up at the upstate Gowanda Correctional Facility from 1991 to 1997 for assault and rape.

McPhail was busted on menacing and weapons charges in Feb. 2017 for terrorizing an unidentified victim with a knife. "Come on. Let's fight," McPhail told the victim in front of a building along E. 75th St.

He was also arrested last week for violating his order of protection.

The five-story building boasts 20 units with an average rent of roughly $2,000 a month, according to StreetEasy.com.

One resident, Jack Link, came to McPhail's defense, saying he was "really conscientious of others."

"He has issues. He's trying to cope," said Link, 21, a Hunter College student. "I don't where he is. I'm worried about him."